re: Do we want Nene?

quote:

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i'd rather pay jason smith 2 mil and get close to the same production.

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Maybe in terms of raw numbers, but not close in terms of fitting a need. Jason Smith is a terrible rebounder and not a good defender. Gortat is a decent defender and a slightly above average rebounder at this point in his career. He's a much better fit with what the Pelicans need at center than Jason Smith. Jason Smith is a good backup stretch 4, he's in over his head as a starting center.

As far as Gortat's price goes who's going to pay him $10-$12? His age (30) makes him fit very few teams. He needs to go to a team who's window is open/opening now and most of those teams don't have a ton of cap space. The list of teams that need a center, will have more than the MLE to offer, and aren't in rebuild mode are:

Washington
Dallas
New Orleans
Cleveland (Probably not, you'd think they'll keep one of Varejao and Hawes)

Would Dallas spend their money upgrading the 3 or the 5 or try to split it between both? If it's just Washington and New Orleans with interest in Gortat, and New Orleans can only offer $7, why would Washington pay Gortat $10-$12? They can pay him $8 and call it a day. Anything more would be bidding against themselves. If Washington wants Gortat they'll probably keep him, if they don't, I think he is attainable by the Pelicans.